Wednesday, September 2, 2009

**::English Profile::**

The English Profile is a long-term research project, which aim is to provide a specific, objective and concrete criteria to the common European framework.
The Common English framework is a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe is divided in 6 levels; A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,C2.
This project is composed of six intitutions, like the British council, Cambridge university press, English UK, etc.
The conection between bouth, is that the English Profile goals are to cover all 6 levels in a simple, unified description and link to others parts of the Common European Framework tool kit.
I think English profile should be adopted in our country, because nowadays many books are been designed by English Profile and our school curriculum is based on it, too. So we need to be up-dated and know about it.
Also one of the English Profile goal is to provide us with a core curriculum for English, that would help us (non-native speaker) to understand and aquired the foreign languange in an “easier way” and look more “natural” when we speak in English.
Thanks to English profile we know what level we belong and that help us to study based in material that is for that apecific level.


THAT IS ALL, MY DEAR FRIENDS
KISS AND HUGS
LANISTICA

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

My Five New Words 2.0


Five new words 2
Taken from the book: Dark Angel by Cassandra Collins
"Touched By An Angel"
here you have a summary:
Scarlett Ray only has one thing left in the world and that one thing is the diner her now deceased mother willed to her. Scarlett loves the diner more than life itself and will do anything to hold onto it, including go up against Kenneth Chandler, a self-serving man determined to buy her out at all costs. Since Scarlett refuses to sell the diner to him, Chandler decides that the best way to achieve his goals is to remove Scarlett from the equation altogether and murder her. (Over a diner?!)
Jake Miscusi is sort of an angel and sort of not. He died back in the 1950s and now lives in purgatory, but is able to assume human form whenever his destiny becomes tied up with another person's. (Don't ask me to further expound upon that statement because it's as murky as mud soup to me, too.)
Somehow Jake's destiny becomes tied up with Scarlett's and he saves her after she's shot down by one of Chandler's thugs. Now Jake must figure out why their destinies have interwoven while shielding his heart from the lure of falling in love with Scarlett in the process.
Where exactly does one begin a critique when their list of complaints about the book in question is longer than the 95 Theses Martin Luther nailed to the Wittenberg door? The plot itself begs for major reformation. Asking readers to swallow a story line that centers on murdering someone over a godforsaken diner in a bad neighborhood is asking a wee bit much. Over top secret information - okay. Over a bid for the presidency - okay. (And I'm sure my fellow Floridians and I could swallow such a plot device more readily than most.) But over a diner? No way. Anything less than a condo in the Poconos and I'm not buying it.
Next on the list is the fact that the heroine Scarlett is only one minor step up from being hopelessly moronic. First of all, if a man wanted my diner enough to kill me over it, he could have the damn thing. There are things in this life worth dying over and things that there aren't. In my estimation, this situation falls under the latter heading.
Aside from her stubbornness over holding onto mother's diner under the threat of death, Scarlett shows her lack of intellect in other ways as well, namely in not believing that Jake is more than a figment of her imagination even after countless encounters with him. She saw him appear under a lamppost more times than I can count. He jumped in front of an oncoming car to save her life and walked away unscathed. He hoisted Scarlett up off of the ground and took her for a ride above the city like Superman did for Lois Lane. Good grief, the man even had electricity jolting out of his fingertips. But did Scarlett believe he was real? Nope. I think I would have started believing sometime during my flight in midair. The electricity thing would have been the clincher.
There are a few other aspects of Dark Angel that contribute to its one heart rating, but the most fundamental one is the lack of interaction between the hero and heroine. For the first half of the novel, most of the narrative concerns Scarlett and her clientele in the diner. Worse yet, as secondary characters go, Scarlett's clientele isn't all that interesting to get to know. It's like a hundred pages of reading about your grandfather recounting that three mile schlep in the snow that he had to make to school every day when he was a boy. Whenever my grandfather starts telling that story, my grandmother hits him over the head with a rolled up newspaper. Grandma would have a field day in Scarlett's diner.
This leads into the biggest gripe of them all: rather than interspersing all of those dull clientele scenes with a few hot and heavy exchanges between the protagonists, the lead characters rarely interact. And when they do, Jake's body inevitably disperses and vanishes into the wind, drawing the scene short. In reality, men do this enough. In a fictional romantic hero, I like a little staying power.
Task 2
Phrase 1: " I'm sorry you were hurt," he mumbled hoarsely.
word 1: Mumbled
Meaning: to speak unclearly and quietly so that the words are difficult to understand.
Gr. info: verb [I or T]
Collocation: ---------
Example:She mumbled something about being too busy.
My example: He mumbled something about me, but i could not heard what was.
Others:
Synonums: murmur Antonyms: articulate.

word 2: Hoarsely ( comes from: hoarse---adjective)
Meaning: having a rough voice, often because of a sore throat or a cold.
Gr. info: adverb.
Collocation: ----
Example: She sounded a bit hoarse.
My example: She was singing hoarsely.
Others:
synonyms: harsh, grating; throaty, rough.

Phrase 2: Then he pressed his hand over the bandage and closed
his eyes. And when he oppened them again, they shone with a
cristal purity that astounded her.

Word 3: Shone
Meaning: [I] to send out or reflect light.
Gr. info: past simple and past participle of
shine.
Collocation: shone with: If a person's eyes or face shine with a quality, you can see that quality in them very strongly.
Collocation example:Her eyes shone with delight.
Example: The sun shone all afternoon.
My example: when maria saw her ice-cream falling to the floor,her eyes shone with anger.
Others:
Synonyms: glimmer, shimmer. Shine, beam, glare refer to the emitting or reflecting of light.


Word 4: Astounded
Meaning: very surprised or shocked.
Gr. info: adjective.
Collocation: astouned to.
Example: I was astounded to hear that Tim had left.
My example: When i get my science test back, i was astouned to see that i got a high grade.
Others:
Synonyms: surprise

Phrase 3: He tilted her face so that she was forced to meet his gaze. "I don't know why I'm here, only that being drawn to you, being with you, is inevitable. Maybe you're a test for me" .

Word 5: Tilted
Meaning: to (cause to) move into a sloping position.
Gr. info: –verb (used with object)-- verb [I or T]
Collocation: ------
Example: Anna looked up at him with her head tilted to one side.
My example: the screen was moved, so everybody looked up with their head titled to one side.
Others: -----

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Corpus.

Corpus linguistics is the study of language as expressed in samples (corpora) or "real world" text. This method represents a digestive approach to deriving a set of abstract rules by which a natural language is governed or else relates to another language. Originally done by hand, corpora are now largely derived by an automated process, which is corrected.
The corpus approach runs counter to Noam Chomsky's view that real language is riddled with performance-related errors, thus requiring careful analysis of small speech samples obtained in a highly controlled laboratory setting.
Taken from wikipedia.
In my own words, corpus is the study of the language, the purpose of this is to show the real state of the language or how this is used nowadays in the “real word”.
It is based on a research of different data, such as magazines, newspaper, exams, etc. This data is keep it in a computer database and it is used to create books or a word frequency list.
I think that all the English teachers need to acknowledge about this, because they must to be aware of what their students want or need to learn to be able to develop a good English level. Also teachers need to have an up to day language level, i mean we can not teach to our students words that are not frequent or used for native speaker, anymore.
Example: bathroom is an old word, nowadays native speakers say restroom or toilette.
To zip up, i think the best reason is that corpora is an useful tool for non-native speakers (like us), because this is an effective teaching resource for all of us.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

TaSk 1

My new 5 words.

  • taken from the book "Paradise" by Judith Mcnaught

Phrase1:

  • Mrs. Ellis reached out and awkwardly patted Meredith's arm, trying to think of something encouraging to say.

Word1: awkwardly

  • Gr. info: adverb---- Improver
  • Meaning: in an embarrassing or worrying way.
  • Collocation:-----------
  • Example: he shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other
  • My example: she was so nervous, that she were talking in an awkwardly way.
  • Other: synonyms: unhandy

Word2: Patted

  • Meaning: to touch (someone or something) lightly and repeatedly with an open hand
  • Gr. info: verb---(T)--- past tense
  • Collocation: pat on
  • Example: He patted me on the shoulder
  • My example: my teacher patted my back and said "pretty good work".
  • Others: idioms
  • **a pat on the back, a word of praise, congratulations, or encouragement: Everyone needs a pat on the back now and then.
    **pat down, to pat or pass the hands over the body of (a clothed person) to detect concealed weapons, drugs, etc.
    **pat on the back, to praise, congratulate, or encourage: The boss patted him on the back for the deal he made yesterday.

Phrase2:

  • Partway down to the staircase, Meredith stopped to speak to an elderly couple, and Lisa held her breath.

Word3: Partway

  • Meaning: At or to a part of the way or distance
  • Gr. info: Adverb----informal
  • Collocation: ----------
  • Example: Shall I walk you partway? I'm already partway home.
  • My example: partway to my house i found a dollar.
  • Other: /'pɑ:tweɪ/

Word4: Staircase

  • Meaning: A set of stairs inside a building usually with a bar fixed on the wall or onto vertical poles at the side for you to hold on to
  • Gr. info: noun----(C)
  • Collocation: ------------
  • Example: she descended the sweeping staircase into the crowd of photographers and journalists.
  • My example: Cinderella lost her shoe in the middle of the staircase.
  • Other: /'steəkeɪs/
  • related words: stairs, stairway, steps

Phrase3:

  • Lisa sent her a derisive look. "I'll be lucky if i get to finish high school, let alone go to college and study interior design. we don't have the money for college."

Word5: derisive

  • Meaning: characterized by or expressing derision; contemptuous; mocking: derisive heckling
  • Gr. info: adjective --- formal
  • Collocation:------------
  • Example: derisive laughter
  • My example: he has a derisive attitude.
  • Other: related words: gibelike, jeering, mocking, taunting